BBC Best Bits | Ep 2 | Tell Me a Story

We know from experience that data convinces, but stories are what move people. So why do we still lead with the spreadsheet and the PowerPoint slide? In this episode of BBC Best Bits, we'll explore the neuroscience of emotional engagement with Richard Newman from episode 108 and purpose-led storytelling at scale with Alison Essie from episode 12. So how do you believe that stories can help leaders to influence people in their teams and in their wider organizations?

So this is something that we're actually brought in to do quite often at an event where, let's say that there is an offsite, a leadership conference or a retreat. And I'm often brought in on the last day. And what I'll say to people is simply that, do you remember last year's offsite? Do you remember the last year's conference where you got together and you had loads of great ideas and amazing insights and initiatives you're gonna put together. And do you remember how 3 months after last year's conference, you suddenly realized that none of those things were actually happening within the business? And there's, I like, either a groan or a roar of laughter from the room as they realize, oh my goodness, you, you're exactly right. And I said, so this year, did you come up with lots of nice initiatives and ideas and things that you wanna roll out and put into action? And you can see them nodding around the room. And I say, so shall we make sure that that doesn't happen again? Shall we make sure that there's some way in which people are going to understand what you've talked about here and put it into action because that's what stories can help you do. Because let's say that in any business, whether you're at an offsite or a conference, or if you've just got a new idea, a new concept, a new initiative, product, or service, you can get really excited about it because you understand it. You've helped create it. You were brought on board with it. If you then go and just share it with people and say, "You need to act on this," they don't really understand why. If you give them lists, you give them bullet points, you give them graphs, all you're doing is engaging the logical the critical part of the brain. And the survival part of the brain and the emotional part are not taking part. They're not engaged, not interested, and have no idea why they should do it. So they might contextually understand, "Okay, I get what I'm supposed to be listening to and doing here, but I don't feel like I care. I don't think that I should change my priorities. I'm not going to remember." They leave the meeting and 2 weeks later, someone says, "Hey, what was that meeting about with Jim?" And they say, "I don't know. There's a lot of graphs in it, something about a new product. It's nothing really much to worry about." And nothing happens. So if you really want to understand to make change in an organization, you have to understand the power of story. The power of story is a bit like Inception. If you've ever watched the movie Inception with Leonardo DiCaprio, if not, go and watch it. It's a great movie. But if you've, if you've watched it, then you know what they do is they go into someone's mind when they're asleep. They plant a story that then grows into something that transforms the way the person behaves every day. And that's what storytelling does. It goes deep into the mind, plants an idea that is there attached to the person feeling like this is important for my survival. Viral. This is emotionally, uh, passionate as an idea for me, and I understand what I should do and I start acting in that direction. And when someone 2 weeks later says, what was that meeting about? They can repeat the story. Just like if you go to the movies and you see a movie that you enjoy and a year later somebody says to you, what was that movie about? Oh, let me tell you. And you can remember the best lines from the movie. You can remember what people said, the plot, the subplots, how it all came together. And that's a year later. But you can't often do that a day later when it comes to a presentation.

And of course, it's the power of that emotional side of the brain that makes us remember those things, isn't it? So it's not about, as you say, the graphs and the spreadsheets and the bullet points and all that stuff. It's us getting a bit more emotionally engaged. But I'm not convinced that actually business is very good at emotional engagement.

Yeah, absolutely right. I talk to people about this a lot. I say to them, You know, have, have you heard about screen fatigue? There's a lot of people talking about the last couple of years since the pandemic, since the lockdown, people have gone home and done virtual working from a screen. There's been this big thing around screen fatigue. And so I'll often say to a group I'm working with, okay, raise a hand if you've heard the term or you felt a sense of screen fatigue these last couple of years. And they raise their hand and I say, is it also true that some people who have complained about screen fatigue they, uh, they, they finish their week, a long week. It's a Friday afternoon. They close down their laptop. They can't bear to look at another screen after all the virtual meetings they've had. They then go into the living room, they turn on the TV, and they are binge-watching Netflix for the next 4 hours. How, how is that screen fatigue? It's not actually screen fatigue. So what, what's happening is, you know, whether it's on screen or in person in business, uh, as you said, Scott, people are engaging each other logically. And you go into a meeting, whether it's virtual or in person, and somebody shows you, uh, data graphs and bullet points. And it's just engaging the logical part of the mind. And you come out of there with cognitive fatigue. It's not screen fatigue, it's cognitive fatigue. Or you do need to be mindful of the brightness of your screens and how close you are, of course, but it's cognitive fatigue most of the time. And then people need to have 2 cups of coffee before they go into the next meeting to have even more cognitive fatigue because we just sort of approach business from that perspective of, I give you the data and the data says this, and therefore we act on it. But that's treating people like human doings. And we're not human doings, we are human beings. And so you have to engage people emotionally first, logically second.

It's quite intangible.

Turgid is the word that I've heard.

Oh, no, I wouldn't be so rude. I wouldn't be so rude as to say that about our client strategies, but they can be difficult for your man on the ground, you know, the frontline people in the business to really make sense of what does this strategy strategy that, that has been worked on probably by, you know, management consultants and the board or the executive team. What does this strategy really mean for me if I'm out there sort of digging up pavements, or if I'm out there putting telegraph wires up? What, what does this mean to me and how can I contribute? And this was all built on the premise that everybody wants to be a hero. I mean, everybody wants have a part to play. Nobody wants to feel that something is being imposed on them, or that in particular in times of change and, and performance improvement when they need to change the way they work or they need to change their behaviors, it can be quite difficult to make those connections. So we developed a methodology that quite simply starts with a very emotionally compelling story that articulates the journey that the business is on. And we, uh, have a number of different capabilities. We have a fantastic creative team. We bring it to life visually. We have great people who are great coaches and trainers who can train leaders on how to make this meaningful for their teams. Uh, we make films. We, we do all sorts of wonderful things. Um, but this is really all about creating that emotional connection. Once you've got people emotionally hooked, then their appetite to change or to at least start to explore how they can make a difference by doing something differently is far greater.

And I think for me it's that creating that red thread for that man digging up the pavements all the way back to the CEO. And you're actually right, from the companies that I speak to and work with, the role of the leader They're the glue. They are the ones that can make the difference. You know, when I, when I run change workshops and I talk to clients and I say, you know, the CEO doesn't know the guy fixing the pavement, but the site supervisor, the foreman, whoever his boss is, he or she knows that person best, knows the context, knows what they're landing into, knows that they just got divorced, their mom died, their niece got married, they had a baby, their dog had puppies, whatever it is, that actually there's something that they can use then to bring that story to life for those people on the ground. So I think there, that leader piece and the engaging emotional piece are absolutely critical.

I think so. I think one of the things that we've found over the years is that leaders, leaders are often very proud of the part of the business they're working for. They may be managers, but they are very proud of what they do, but they struggle to find— to really understand why is this strategy relevant to me. And it's that disconnect. It's about really not really, uh, understanding or getting how this is actually going to make their— what's in it for me? It's, you know, what— how is it going to enhance my life, my— the life of my team? And in so doing, the, the the life of the company, if you like. So, so I think this is really geared towards leaders. It's about creating inspirational leaders, helping leaders become great storytellers so that they can bring their people with them during times of change and massively accelerate the pace of that, of that change and transform the organization. So it really is about creating an inspirational, inspirational leadership, and that's what this storytelling is all about. And I think now leadership, the storytelling rather, is actually seen as a key and essential leadership skill.

Definitely, and there are, I'm seeing in a room normally when I say the word storytelling or engagement, I used to get a lot of rolling eyes. Now I tend to get a few less rolling eyes, so I think it is becoming much, much more mainstream. And if you look back to David McLeod and Engage for success and the whole engagement world, the whole idea of having a really strong narrative, really compelling and engaging leaders, employee voice and integrity are all the things that you're talking about. And therefore, by looking at stories, by looking at narrative, by looking at leadership, driving the engagement of an organization. Thanks for listening. If you want to hear these interviews in full, you'll find links to each one in the show notes. And for more on Inspiring Change and the work we do, just pop along to inspiringchange.ie.